Leah's Redress

Genesis 48-50

Revenge, reparations, redress... I don't know exactly what to call it, but the irony clearly demonstrates how God's ways are so very different than ours. In life and death, birth and burial, and for generations to come... Leah truly was first, except in Jacob's eyes. At first sight, Jacob was madly in love with Rachel and was willing to work 7 years for her hand in marriage, only to be tricked into marrying her older sister Leah, so he labored an additional 7 to marry Rachel too. Yet Leah's womb was the one opened by God, so that she conceived before Rachel, still Rachel was Jacob's first love.

In the course of time Rachel too conceived but her first-born was sold into slavery by his half brothers and she died giving birth to her second-born son. She was buried in a tomb on the side of the road to Bethlehem, while Leah lived to an old age and was finally laid to rest in the family tomb with Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, and Rebecca. Many years later when Jacob died in Egypt, he made Joseph promise to bury him next to Leah.

And even though Joseph was to be ruler over his brothers, it was Leah's fourth son, Judah, who was to receive the richest blessing from Jacob, and from whose lineage was to emerge the kings of Israel. Interestingly enough, when Leah named her first three children the names she chose showed a bitterness and self pity... and her sons reflected it. Scripture does not explain why, but when she gave birth to her fourth son the name she chose reflected a newfound joy in the Lord saying "Now I will praise the Lord." It was this son who was to become father to kings.